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I have a 2000 Honda Accord EX. My husband was driving back from work and noticed
air was not cold. We took it to a mechanic we knew, find out value on high and low side was leaking. He changed this and added can of freon. PROBLEM SOLVED?
No, now when you turn on the ac, it burns out the fuse. He changed the fuse again, still
does the same. He disconnected the clutch and still same problem? what can be burning the fuse to the air condition. Could it be a relay switch, and if so, how can you tell?
Are could it be something with a wire touching another wire, shorting it out,and if so how can you tell?
What may help you nail down the problem is identifying exactly what fuse is blowing; i.e., the under-hood fuse going to the condenser fan motor and A/C compressor clutch, the under-hood fuse going to the ignition switch (BAT), the under-hood power distribution fuse, or some other under-dash fuse.
Automotive air conditioning is a specialty unto itself. Personally, I recommend that you only allow a Honda-trained A/C technician work on it, to prevent nightmare scenarios--of which I am aware of many.
Since the 20 A condenser fan fuse keeps blowing, the next step would be to disconnect the negative battery terminal; then, locate, remove, and test the condenser fan relay. You may decide to take your chance and just replace it--your call.
There should be a bracket, next to the condenser fan, which contains two relays. The one on the left (closest to the condenser fan) should be the condenser fan relay, while the one on the right should be the compressor clutch relay. The condenser fan relay likely has YEL, YEL/WHT, WHT, and BLU/BLK wires going to it.
You are rapidly moving in a direction where you will soon be on your own, because it's difficult to do A/C work from afar. I will guess that you have a 4-P relay. There should be continuity between the C and D terminals. There should be continuity between the A and B terminals, when power and ground are connected to the C and D terminals. There should be no continuity, when power is disconnected.
A---------------C
|
|
B---------------D
I can't get the diagram to come out the way I'd like. There should also be a line drawn between C and D--it just won't come through. The electromagnetic coil goes between C and D. See if you have continuity between C and D, with a multimeter set to ohms. Hopefully, the coil has shorted out and that is what's blowing the fuse. You might also attach a small 9v battery between terminals C and D and see if it clicks.
If the problem is not relay-related, then I would check out the condenser fan motor and try getting it to run using jumper wires. If it doesn't run, then replace.
My concern is that the 20 A fuse you identified may also go to the compressor clutch; therefore, it's really the compressor clutch relay that is bad. This is a much more likely scenario. Are you sure a 7.5 A fuse in the under-dash fuse relay did not also blow? Use a test light or multimeter to test all fuses in the under-dash fuse box. Here's how to do it:
After thinking about this situation a lot, I don't think the problem is with the condenser fan relay. Instead, I think you may have a short in the compressor clutch relay or in the wire (or connector) between the compressor clutch relay and the compressor clutch. This is the only thing that makes sense to me, if just the 20 A fuse is being blown.
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